Jtovcmbor 20, 187S. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEF. 



iiOo 



not be said to be a method of utilisation, except to a partial 

 extent, as the investif;ation made by the Committee showed 

 th:\t the etlliient water contained as much nitrogen as was 

 originally in solution in the sewage, but mainly as nitric acid, 

 instead of as ammonia and organic nitrogen : and there can 

 be no doubt that the process will prove useful, as an adjunct 

 to irrigation cannot conveniently be got. By properly-con- 

 ducted sewage irrigation, a solution is afforded to the ([uestion 

 of sewage ntilisation. It has already been stated that a pre- 

 cipitation process or some clarifying process may bo found 

 uscfal in all instances. It is essential that the land should be 

 well underdrained, and that the sewage should all pass through 

 the soil, and not merely over it ; otherwise, as has been shown, 

 it will only occasionally bo satisfactorily purified. The catch- 

 water, or, as the Committee term it, the ' supersaturation ' 

 principle is not det'ensibh', either on agricultural, chemical, or 

 sanitary principles. An irrigation farm should therefore cany 

 out intermittent downward filtration on a large scale, so that 

 sewage may be always thoroughly purified, while at the same 

 time the maximum of utilisation is obtained. It is certain 

 that all kinds of crops may be grown with sewage, so that the 

 farmer can grow snch as he can best sell. Nevertheless, the 

 staple crops must be cattle food, with occasional crops of corn ; 

 and it is also certain, from the analysis of the soil, that it has 

 become very much richer, and that the manurial constituents 

 of the sewage accumulate in it. Cattle should be fed on the 

 farm, which leads to a vast increase in the production of meat 

 and milk, the great desiderata of the population producing the 

 sewage. Thus the system of farming must be specialised and 

 capital concentrated, the absence of which conditions has 

 proved a great barrier to the satisfactoi-y practical solution of 

 the sewage question. The Committee has not been able to 

 trace any ill effects to the health of the persons living around 

 sewage farms, even when badly conducted, nor is there any 

 proof whatever that vegetables grown thereon are in any way 

 inferior to those grown with other manure. On the contrary, 

 there is plenty of evidence that such vegetables are perfectly 

 suited for the food of man and beast, and that the milk given 

 by cows fed on sewage grass is perfectly wholesome. Thus 

 Mr. Dyke, medical officer of health of Merthyr Tydvil, states 

 that since the abundant supply of milk from the cows fed on 

 irrigated grass the children's mortality has decreased from 48, 

 50, and .52 per cent, of the total deaths to only 39 per cent., 

 and that, so far from diarrhcta having been made more pre- 

 valent by the use of sewaged cabbages, ' last year the Registrar- 

 General called attention to the fact that diarrha'a was less 

 prevalent in Merthyrthau in any place in England and Wales,' 

 and he expressed his belief in ' the perfect salubrity of the 

 vegetable food so grown.' With regard to the as.sumption 

 which has been made that entozoic disease would be propagated 

 by Irrigation, all the evidence that the Committee has been 

 able to collect, and more especially the positive facts obtained 

 by experiments, are against such an idea, and the Committee 

 is of opinion that such disease will certainly not be more 

 readily propagated by sewage irrigation than by the use of 

 human refuse as manure in any other way, and probably less 

 if the precaution be taken of not allowing the animals to 

 graze, but always having the grass cut and carried to them." 



From the results thus reported (and the evidence could be 

 readily multiplied), we may safely banish all our fears of any 

 danger to our health being produced by the use of sewage- 

 irrigated grass. The object to be obtained is of far too im- 

 portant a character to be discussed without the greatest caution, 

 with an inflexible detennination to adhere to truth, and the 

 most careful avoidance of personalities, which on recent occa- 

 sions have been employed to an intolerable extent. 



RETUBBING LARGE PLANTS. 



The contrivance represented in the accompanying figure was 

 designed by Mr. H. J. Van Hulle, from his recollection of a 

 drawing of a similar apparatus which he had seen in his youth. 

 its object being to lighten the labour and lessen the difficulty 

 of placing large plants in fresh tubs. Mr. Xem Hulle thus 

 describes it in the Belgian " Bulletin d'.\rboriculture " of 

 September : — 



Take two strong posts, a and b, so securely stayed at their 

 base that there can be no chance of their upsetting. Set them 

 at a suitable distance from each other, and place between them 

 the plant to be retubbed, or, what amounts to the same thing, 

 take the uprights to the plant. The old tub or box is removed, 

 the ball seen to, the stem carefully wrapped round to prevent 



injury to the bark, and the collar e put on. This can ba 

 tightened to any desired extent by the four screws shown in 

 the engraving. Lastly, Jthe two cuds of the collar are slipped 

 into the grooves in the uprights, which, as will be perceived, 

 are also pierced with holes. The apparatus having been pre- 

 pared for action, two men with a pole, or even one with a long 

 lever, will raise the collar, and therefore tbo plant, say to the 

 point c, and an iron pin is there pushed into the hole under 

 the cnUar ; the plant is then raised tOD, aud so on alternately. 

 In a few minutes two, or at most four, men cau thus raise up 

 plants of the largest size. To prevent any danger of over- 



balancing, a strong stake has been put to the plant, and of 

 sufficient length to slide in the guide-ring v as the plant is 

 lifted. When the requisite height is reached, the new tub is 

 put under the plant, and the latter is let down peg by peg in the 

 same way as it was raised up. The less the distance between 

 the holes the better, aud never raise up or let down more than 

 one hole at a time. The contrivance is in use at the Ghent 

 Botanic Garden, and there gives perfect satisfaction. 



KEW GARDENS.— No. -1. 



AxoTHER very remarkable tree which springs up amid the 

 dingier Gums, and is just touching the roof, is the Norfolk 

 Island Pine, the leaves of which forming green plattcr-like 

 trays, so to speak, at regular intervals on its delicate stem, 

 have a very graceful effect. In its native woods it reaches a 

 height of 200 feet. These beautiful trees have been success- 

 fully imported into Europe, and grow with great luxuriance at 

 San Lucar and on the coast of Portugal. New Zealand has 

 many specimens of her trees at Knw ; among them, Kai Katea, 

 a fine tree — the white Pine of the colonists, and Arcca sapida, 

 a New Zealand Palm, and Podocarpus Totnra, which is one of 

 the most valuable timber trees in the colony. 



On the northern side of the house there is a noble collection 

 of .Japanese plants. This we are told is characterised by an 

 unusually large proportion of woody plants, many of which be- 

 long to families which arc rare elsewhere so far to the north. 

 This, doubtless, is the scientific distinguishing character of the 

 Japanese flora, but to the non-botanical observer the remark- 

 able characteristic is the perseverance with which this extra- 

 ordinary people have managed to variegate the leaves of their 

 plants. The Aucuba japonicawe have so assimilated to our- 

 selves, is a specimen. The variegation in the leaves of this 

 handsome Laurel is but a type of the change effected in 



